I recently purchased a multimeter and have watched about 4-5 youtube videos on how use them. I am trying to figure out the voltage/current/power of my magneto (hand cranked). I figured out the battery tester function really quickly but found that my magneto didn't run DC current. So I switched it to the A- (something like that) to check it on the m side (not sure what the symbols mean). I tried it on 20m and got the highest reading at 19. I then tried it at 200m and got 26.0 assuming back to math class it seems to have a spike at 26m what does this mean? And if I need it to power two lights (one bright like night light 7w-ish, and one bright led) what lights do you recommend? Thanks you very much for your time. apparently from the videos on youtube the - sign denotes I have the testers switched. Seems to be AC current.

Hey alien,
Did you get a digital, or analog? A digital read-out or a needle. You might want to show a picture, or the brand and model. BTW, where did you get that avatar picture? Looks neat. Or strange.
A.. probably is AC voltage.
Dan

Hey alien,
Did you get a digital, or analog? A digital read-out or a needle. You might want to show a picture, or the brand and model. BTW, where did you get that avatar picture? Looks neat. Or strange.
A.. probably is AC voltage.
Dan

The reading in the picture is 24ma AC. You have it set for the 200ma (max) scale. If you ever need to measure more than 200ma then use the other input (labeled 10A), otherwise you will blow the internal fuse the meter has.

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One other thing that needs mentioning, if the meter is directly on the output of the generator it is a dead short. A voltmeter has high resistance, a current meter is low resistance.

An incandescent telephone lightbulb is about in that range, 60v and 20 ma. You would get more light with a bunch of white LEDs in series, though. Need a bridge rectifier and a series resistor for the LEDs. See if it will still give you 59 volts across a 2.7k 2watt resistor, we need to determine the source impedance.

Welcome back from your holiday, and congeatulation s on your new meter. The symbol next to A, a dash with 3 dots under, stands for DC; a wavy dash is AC. My guess on output of 0-50 V AC not too far off. Do you have any diodes or resistors on hand or a 12 relay ? As duffy sugested I'll add my guess that you can drive a string of LED's. A quick review: you have or need 2 lights,one general illumination always on from 12 V battery, and one to light cave driven by magneto ?? Would you want cave illumination to vary with crank speed?

Originally I wanted the hand cranked magneto to power both lights the top one about as bright as a night light and the lower cave light a small (seed) type bulb that I had bought in a bundle years ago. I found that I could only light one of the bulbs with the magneto but I loved the slight flicker affect it gave the cave (like old movie feel). I figure now I need to have the viewer set off the surface light via motion sensor (people never push switches on art) plus it will save the batteries. And have them crank the handle to see the cave scene.

No answer to parts on hand yet. For lots of ripple try : Diode , anode to mag 1,cathode[band end] to2700 Ω,2W resistor other end to anode of LED, cathode to mag 2. If you have some resistors maybe we can synthisize a 2700 Ω resistor.